Revelation 13:10 - 18

10 He who leads into captivity shall go into captivity; he who kills with the sword must be killed with the sword. Here is the patience and the faith of the saints.

The Beast from the Earth

11 Then I saw another beast coming up out of the earth, and he had two horns like a lamb and spoke like a dragon. 12 And he exercises all the authority of the first beast in his presence, and causes the earth and those who dwell in it to worship the first beast, whose deadly wound was healed. 13 He performs great signs, so that he even makes fire come down from heaven on the earth in the sight of men. 14 And he deceives those who dwell on the earth by those signs which he was granted to do in the sight of the beast, telling those who dwell on the earth to make an image to the beast who was wounded by the sword and lived. 15 He was granted power to give breath to the image of the beast, that the image of the beast should both speak and cause as many as would not worship the image of the beast to be killed. 16 He causes all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a mark on their right hand or on their foreheads, 17 and that no one may buy or sell except one who has the mark or the name of the beast, or the number of his name.

18 Here is wisdom. Let him who has understanding calculate the number of the beast, for it is the number of a man: His number is 666.

Verse 10 applies a principal of which is related several times in the scripture, how you live determines your future many times. Christ told Peter, “for all who take the sword will perish by the sword. ” (Matthew 26:52) Paul says “for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap.(Galatians 6:7)

During all of the commotions effecting the Roman empire, Christians will have an opportunity of staying true and steadfast to the Lord, thus it shows the faith and patience they have in Him.

As troubles of the world happen, including the tribulations caused by disease such as the COVID-19 pandemic, we need to remain faithful to our Savior, even when we cannot meet together to worship Him we can show our patience and faith as His saints.

The word earth is used figuratively, just like “sea” was used in the previous study. It means people of the world because all governments on earth are composed of human beings.

This next beast refers to Papal Rome, the apostate church in connection with the earthly government previously in control, which was the Pagan Roman empire. The two horns represent the two parts of this empire, church and state, which is the composition of the new empire after Constantine accepted the religion professed by a bishop of the church who then assumed the title of Pope.

The leader of this new beast is not a Caesar, but a man called Pope, according to the followers of him, it means “universal father, he is their father or papa, adding the “l” to the name and we have the term “papal” meaning “of the pope.”

This new beast, spoke as a dragon, made its profession to be like Christ, but it is speaking the words of the dragon, Satan. Paul predicted the coming of this organization when he said.  “Let no one deceive you by any means; for that Day will not come unless the falling away comes first, and the man of sin is revealed, the son of perdition, who opposes and exalts himself above all that is called God or tha t is worshiped, so that he sits as God in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God.” (2 Thessalonians 2:3 – 4) and “The coming of the lawless one is according to the working of Satan, with all power, signs, and lying wonders, ” (2 Thessalonians 2:9)

The Roman empire had already conquered much of the known world so it had authority all over Europe and the middle east and into North Africa. All of the power wielded by the first empire was inherited by the Roman-Catholic church-state.

The pope instructed the subjects of the empire to obey the orders of the government even in matters regarding their religious activities.

Whatever weakness was effecting the power of the Roman empire had been resolved and the pope was very grateful because the power was great in his bid to control the lives of the people.

When the pope had the people worship the first beast, it was not in a literal worship type service but for them to be grateful to the Roman empire for the conditions which supported and promoted the Roman-Catholic doctrines.

These great signs which he appears to make are the deceptions talked about in 2 Thessalonians 2, where Paul descibes them as “signs and lying wonders.”

All of these signs and lying wonders are done in the sight of the beast (officers of the state) as it approves of the deceitful doctrines and miracles which spread through the empire which cause opposition to the worship of the true God. By forming an image of the first beast, the pope, wants the people to continue the opposition of God's word and His true church as the Roman empire had. The pope was dependent on the support of the state to control the people and force them to obey his directives, the pope today would desire to have the support of the worldly governments.

The second beast, the papal Roman-Catholic empire through direction of the pope promoted the persecution of true Christians, those who were members of the true church, any people or organization which continued in the practice of persecution of God's people would be supported by the church-state and those who did not support these practices would risk death.

The “mark” in this verse is defined as “a stamp, and imprinted mark,” according to Thayer and he says “of the mark stamped on the forehead or the right hand as a badge of the follower of Antichrist.” This mark seen by John was symbolical and was invisible and could not be seen with human eyes. This invisible stain of guilt which permeated the followers of the beast (Roman-Catholic church) could be seen by God and the representatives of the pope. The actions of these people identified them as followers of the pope.

The pope restricted the rights of those who did not follow his directions, those that did follow his orders were allowed to do business and prosper, those who did not follow the directions of the pope did not have the characteristics allowing them the same privileges.

The number of the beast and the number of a man are said to be the same. The preceding verse tells us the number is equal to the number of his name. This is 666.

We must remember we are talking about the first beast (Pagan Rome) but this is not what has this number, this tells us it is the number of a man. So we need to find a man who was an outstanding leader of the Roman empire. The letters in Greek which were 666 is (CHXS) and Thayer tells us about this. “A mystical number the meaning of which is clear when it is written in Hebrew letters...i.e., Nero Caesar.”

Why would Nero be the one with the 666 mark on him? Nero was the most notorious and infamous of the emperors, He is the one who had both Paul and Peter executed and was famous for using Christians as torches in his garden at night to light up parties. He set the precedent the following Caesars used in opposing the true church.